Learn a frightful load of useful vocabulary you can use in the run-up to Halloween
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to chineseclass101. I am David. |
| Echo:大家好，我是Echo.(Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Echo.) |
| David: And Echo, we are here with elementary lesson #39 in our first series. |
| Echo: 没错，第三十九课。(Méi cuò, dì sānshíjiǔ kè.) |
| David: Yeah. And Halloween is approaching and we’ve got a dialogue that’s all about What Happens When Ghosts Get Out? |
| Echo: Yeah 全都是为了 (Quándōu shì wèile)Halloween. |
| David: It’s between two friends and they are speaking casual Mandarin as always. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: Okay. We are going to take you to the dialogue in a moment. Before we do, we want to mention, our dialogues are getting longer and they are getting more difficult. |
| Echo: 对。(Duì.) |
| David: So if you haven’t grabbed our premium PDF yet, come to the site, subscribe and you are going to get access to everything you need. |
| Echo: 没错，他可以帮助你更好地看我们的 (Méi cuò, tā kěyǐ bāngzhù nǐ gèng hǎo de kàn wǒmen de)Text. |
| David: Right. Now though, we are going to take you through the dialogue one time fast, one time slow and then we are going to translate it line by line. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A:昨天我看见鬼了。(Zuótiān wǒ kànjiàn guǐ le.) |
| B:鬼？(Guǐ?) |
| A:对，就在你的卧室里。(Duì, jiù zài nǐ de wòshì lǐ.) |
| B:不可能。你怎么相信有鬼？(Bù kěnéng. Nǐ zěnme xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ?) |
| A:她穿着白衣服，还一直呜呜地叫呢！(Tā chuān zhe bái yīfu, hái yīzhí wūwū de jiào ne!) |
| B:哦，是我奶奶。她就这样。(O, shì wǒ nǎinai. Tā jiù zhèyàng.) |
| One more time, a bit slower. |
| A:昨天我看见鬼了。(Zuótiān wǒ kànjiàn guǐ le.) |
| B:鬼？(Guǐ?) |
| A:对，就在你的卧室里。(Duì, jiù zài nǐ de wòshì lǐ.) |
| B:不可能。你怎么相信有鬼？(Bù kěnéng. Nǐ zěnme xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ?) |
| A:她穿着白衣服，还一直呜呜地叫呢！(Tā chuān zhe bái yīfu, hái yīzhí wūwū de jiào ne!) |
| B:哦，是我奶奶。她就这样。(O, shì wǒ nǎinai. Tā jiù zhèyàng.) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Echo: 昨天我看见鬼了。(Zuótiān wǒ kànjiàn guǐ le.) |
| David: Yesterday I saw a ghost. |
| Echo: 鬼？(Guǐ?) |
| David: A ghost! |
| Echo: 对，就在你的卧室里。(Duì, jiù zài nǐ de wòshì lǐ.) |
| David: Yeah it was in your bedroom. |
| Echo: 不可能。你怎么相信有鬼？(Bù kěnéng. Nǐ zěnme xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ?) |
| David: That’s not possible. How can you believe in ghosts? |
| Echo: 她穿着白衣服，还一直呜呜地叫呢！(Tā chuān zhe bái yīfu, hái yīzhí wūwū de jiào ne!) |
| David: She was wearing white clothes and continuously made this woo wooing… sound. |
| Echo: 哦，是我奶奶。她就这样。(O, shì wǒ nǎinai. Tā jiù zhèyàng.) |
| David: It’s my grandmother. She is just that way. |
| Echo: She is just like that. |
| David: She is just like that yeah, yeah! So maybe it was a ghost, maybe not. |
| Echo: 好恐怖呀。(Hǎo kǒngbù ya.) |
| David: You have any relatives like this Echo? |
| Echo: 没有，我很幸运。(Méiyǒu, wǒ hěn xìngyùn.) |
| David: Okay. Halloween is approaching and our vocab is all about scary stuff. So let’s get right to that and now the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Echo: 鬼 (guǐ) |
| David: Ghost. |
| Echo: 噩梦 (èmèng) |
| David: Nightmare. |
| Echo: 害怕 (hàipà) |
| David: To be afraid. |
| Echo: 恐怖 (kǒngbù) |
| David: Terrifying. |
| Echo: 万圣节 (Wànshèng jié) |
| David: Halloween. |
| Echo: 卧室 (wòshì) |
| David: Bedroom. |
| Echo: 相信 (xiāngxìn) |
| David: To believe. |
| Echo: 穿着 (chuān zhe) |
| David: To be wearing. |
| Echo: 一直 (yìzhí) |
| David: Continuously. |
| Echo: 一直 (yìzhí) |
| David: So a lot of scary vocab or vocab useful for describing scary things. |
| Echo: 你可以在万圣节的时候用。 (Nǐ kěyǐ zài wànshèngjié de shíhòu yòng.) |
| David: Yes or any other time when you have a nightmare. |
| Echo: 噩梦。(Èmèng.) |
| David: What’s the opposite of a nightmare in Chinese? |
| Echo: 好梦。 (Hǎo mèng.) |
| David: And there is also |
| Echo: 美梦。噩梦，好梦，美梦。(Měimèng. Èmèng, hǎo mèng, měimèng.) |
| David: So you could say, yesterday I had a nightmare. |
| Echo: 昨天我做了一个噩梦。(Zuótiān wǒ zuòle yīgè èmèng.) |
| David: I had a great dream yesterday. |
| Echo: 昨天我做了一个美梦。记住这个(Zuótiān wǒ zuòle yīgè měimèng. Jì zhù zhège) verb应该是“做”。(yīnggāi shì “zuò”.) |
| David: To have a dream. |
| Echo: 做梦。(Zuòmèng.) |
| David: To have a nightmare. |
| Echo: 做恶梦。(Zuò è mèng.) |
| David: Of the rest of the words we’ve got, two which are kind of close. There is to be scared. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Echo: 害怕。(hàipà.) |
| David: I am scared. |
| Echo: 我很害怕。(Wǒ hěn hàipà.) |
| David: And our second word. |
| Echo: 恐怖。(Kǒngbù.) |
| David: Is more of an adjective. So you could say that something is terrifying. Yesterday I had a terrifying dream. |
| Echo: 昨天我做了一个恐怖的噩梦。(Zuótiān wǒ zuòle yīgè kǒngbù de èmèng.) |
| David: And we see this in the news a lot these days too. |
| Echo: 恐怖分子。(Kǒngbù fèn zi.) |
| David: Which would be terror elements or terrorists. |
| Echo: Yeah. Or 恐怖主义。(Kǒngbù zhǔyì.) |
| David: Terrorism. Another word that’s interesting here is the word for believe. |
| Echo: 相信。(Xiāngxìn.) |
| David: I believe in ghosts. |
| Echo: 我相信有鬼。(Wǒ xiāngxìn yǒu guǐ.) |
| David: What would it mean if it was 我相信鬼。(Wǒ xiāngxìn guǐ.) |
| Echo: It means you trust them. |
| David: You trust or you believe the ghost. |
| Echo: 对，比如说“我相信上帝”。(Duì, bǐrú shuō “wǒ xiāngxìn shàngdì”.) |
| David: Any other words you think are interesting here? |
| Echo: 一直。(Yīzhí.) |
| David: Continuously. |
| Echo: 一直。(Yīzhí.) |
| David: In the dialogue, we had the line, she was continuously making a wooing sound. |
| Echo: 她一直呜呜的叫。(Tā yīzhí wū wū de jiào.) |
| David: That’s our vocab section for today. Remember, our key words are nightmare. |
| Echo: 噩梦。(Èmèng.) |
| David: Beautiful dream. |
| Echo: 美梦。(Měimèng.) |
| David: The difference between |
| Echo: 害怕。(Hàipà.) |
| David: And |
| Echo: 恐怖。(Kǒngbù.) |
| David: And finally we talked a bit about belief. |
| Echo: 相信。(Xiāngxìn.) |
| David: Right. Let’s head to the grammar section. It’s grammar time. Our grammar lesson for you today is all about the present continuous. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Echo: With 这。(Zhè.) |
| David: Yeah. We are going to teach you actually two ways of saying that things are happening or are ongoing. |
| Echo: The first way is to use the particle 着。笑着。(Zhe. Xiàozhe.) |
| David: To be smiling. |
| Echo: 跑着。(Pǎozhe.) |
| David: To be running. |
| Echo: 叫着。(Jiàozhe.) |
| David: To be crying or making a noise. |
| Echo: 笑着，跑着，叫着(Xiàozhe, pǎozhe, jiàozhe.)。 Remember when you use 着 (Zhe), make sure you use it with a neuter tone. |
| David: Yeah fifth tone, neutral. In the dialogue, we heard this in the following sentence. 她穿着白衣服，还一直呜呜地叫呢！ (Tā chuānzhe bái yīfú, hái yīzhí wū wū de jiào ne!) |
| Echo: 她穿着白衣服，还一直呜呜地叫呢！(Tā chuānzhe bái yīfú, hái yīzhí wū wū de jiào ne!) |
| David: She was wearing white clothing and continuously making this woo…woo sounds. It’s not good way to translate that into English. Woo…sound. |
| Echo: I know, I know you are making it cute instead of 恐怖。(Kǒngbù.) |
| David: Yeah. Anyway, let’s simplify that a bit. We’ve got two verbs there. The first is to be wearing. |
| Echo: 穿。(Chuān.) |
| David: And we put that into the continuous with |
| Echo: 穿着。(Chuānzhe.) |
| David: The second is to make a sound. |
| Echo: 叫。(Jiào.) |
| David: We could also put that in the continuous as well. |
| Echo: 她穿着白衣服还叫着。(Tā chuānzhe bái yīfú hái jiàozhe.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 现在有点恐怖。(Xiànzài yǒudiǎn kǒngbù.) |
| David: Yeah now it’s a bit less cartoony. So we’ve got two verbs there. The first is to be wearing. |
| Echo: 穿着。(Chuānzhe.) |
| David: And the second is to be crying. |
| Echo: 叫着。(Jiàozhe.) |
| David: Let’s have some more examples. |
| Echo: Right. 他总是笑着。(Tā zǒng shì xiàozhe.) |
| David: He is always smiling or laughing. |
| Echo: 没错。鬼在卧室里跑着。(Méi cuò. Guǐ zài wòshì lǐ pǎozhe.) |
| David: The ghost is running around the bedroom. |
| Echo: 好恐怖呀。(Hǎo kǒngbù ya.) |
| David: I guess so. One thing that’s useful to remember is that we are treating 着 (Zhe) just like 了(Le) and 过(Guò). If we have verbs that have objects, we have to break them apart and stick the 着 (Zhe) in the middle. |
| Echo: Exactly. Just like 这个人看着电视。(Zhège rén kànzhe diànshì.) |
| David: This person is watching television. It’s pretty easy this right? |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: If you already know how to use 了 (le) put things in the past tense. You know how to use this. |
| Echo: Right. |
| David: It’s so easy in fact. We are not done. We are going to teach people another way of… |
| Echo: 第二种。(Dì èr zhǒng.) |
| David: Yeah. This is another way of putting things into you kind of a continuous sense. |
| Echo: 差不多。(Chàbùduō.) |
| David: What is that? |
| Echo: We don’t want to use 着 (Zhe) try putting 在 (Zài) in front of the verb. |
| David: That’s short for 正在。(Zhèngzài.) |
| Echo: Right. 正在。他总是在笑。(Zhèngzài. Tā zǒng shì zài xiào.) |
| David: He is always smiling. How about they are eating food. We had that sentence too. |
| Echo: 他们吃着饭。(Tāmen chīzhe fàn.) |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: Now it can be 他们在吃饭。(Tāmen zài chīfàn.) |
| David: Grammatically there is a bit less emphasis on it being continuous but especially if you are talking about the present tense |
| Echo: Yeah it means something is going on. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: Or was going on. It’s going to go. |
| David: Yeah and for extra emphasis, super bonus points. Stick this in the sentence two. |
| Echo: 一直。他一直在看电视。(Yīzhí. Tā yīzhí zài kàn diànshì.) |
Outro |
| David: And that’s our lesson for today. Two grammar points relatively simple. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: How to express things in the continuous tense. Okay Echo, something you wanted to say. |
| Echo: 你知道我最喜欢什么吗？(Nǐ zhīdào wǒ zuì xǐhuān shénme ma?) |
| David: You love replying to comments. |
| Echo: Right and reading them too. |
| David: Yeah. |
| Echo: 对，给我们留言吧 (Duì, gěi wǒmen liúyán ba) No matter you have questions or suggestions or anything you want to share with us. |
| David: Yeah. Leave a note on the site or send us an email. We love to hear from you. |
| Echo: 没错。(Méi cuò.) |
| David: And with that, we are done with our podcast for today. |
| Echo: From Beijing, 我是 (Wǒ shì)Echo. |
| David: I am David and we will see you next week. |
| Echo: 下次见。(Xià cì jiàn.) |
| David: Bye. |
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